211 



most enjoy them. Take for instance the mango and the wi — 

 if you insert a tiat handled nutpick into the stem end of these 

 fruits so that you have a convenient way of handhng them you 

 no longer wish you were in a bathtub while eating them. To 

 those not accustomed to the alligator pear, when it is eaten with 

 salt only it is very distasteful, but prepared with vinegar, pepper 

 and salt becomes palatable. The breadfruit, if eaten to ad- 

 vantage, must be allowed to so thoroughly ripen that when 

 handled its sides will dent. And so on with nearly all our fruits. 

 There are good and bad ways of preparing them, all of which 

 each housekeeper and hotel and restaurant manager should 

 know. 



By means of a booklet, (similar to this one I have on Jamaica, 

 which I consider very excellent), all this knov;ledge could be 

 easily brought before the people to the very great advantage of 

 Hawaii and Hawaii's visitors. 



SELECTION OF SEED: COCO-NUTS. 



The copra produced by i,ooo Ceylon ordinary nuts is abou,t 

 twice as much as that obtained from Seychelles nuts. This re- 

 sult has been obtained in the same soil, under the influence of the 

 same climate, and is entirely due to selection. It is to be hoped 

 that the discussion raised on the subject by the planters after 

 their having seen the nuts introduced from Ceylon may prove 

 the beginning of a careful selection of nuts for planting in 

 Seychelles. Many of them have already informed me that they 

 liave found on their estates a few of their trees producing- huts 

 similar to those of Ceylon and that they intend keeping them for 

 propagation. It is probable that the trees which produce very 

 small nuts have less requirements than those which produce big- 

 ger nuts, and that varieties which produce big nuts normally wall 

 bear smaller nuts if they are starved out. But when one thinks 

 of the very trifling aniount of plant food which is removed from 

 the soil by coco-nut cultivation, there seems to be no difficulty 

 in supplying the elements which are required to a greater extent 

 by the big-nut varieties. The planter must choose between having 

 small nuts without trouble and having double the crop by using 

 proper methoas and selection. — Annual Colonial Report, 1904^ 

 Seychelles. 



